Port Harcourt — Rivers State Government has renegotiated a 10-month period to clear arrears of 70 percent salary relativity and new minimum wage owed civil servants.

State Head of Service, Mr. Samuel Longjohn, disclosed this after meeting labour leaders over continued negotiations for peaceful settlement of vexing salary enhancement deprivations and deductions from the state's workforce.

Longjohn said the reviewed 10 months clearance plan, which overrides an earlier negotiated shorter commitment, became imperative because of the enormity of the amount government owes the workers, put at N8.9 billion.

On pension erroneously deducted from salaries of workers not included in new pension scheme, the new tax regime and the National Housing Fund Scheme, Director of Payroll Department in the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Ernest Chapp-Jumbo, informed the meeting that refund had been made to those affected.